Doesn’t it seem that everything just keeps getting more and more complex? Take the telephone, for instance. When I was a youth, the phone hung on the kitchen wall; when you wanted to make a call you dialed out, and when it rang, you answered it. Pretty simple and straightforward communication in to and out of the home. Nowadays, much like the kitchen phone, my cell phone can receive and send voice communications…but this marvel can also receive and send text messages, e-mails, and even pictures; it can track my appointments and remind me with a chime or a chirp of my choice that I’m due at a meeting someplace. This little tool can even access the Internet. The User Manual is several hundred pages long. I don’t remember a User Manual for the phone in the kitchen.
The same can be said for our business. It has gotten more and more complex. Just look at all of the different Plan designs and options offered through a Health Reimbursement Arrangement. Meanwhile, the more unique and complex the offering, the higher the risk of error. This is why TASC has kicked-off our new initiative: Simplify Complexity. Like so much of our strategy at TASC, this initiative’s purpose is to help us perform better.
What do I mean by Simplify Complexity? Look at our AgriPlan and BizPlan services. We recently conducted a survey of nearly 27,000 Microbusiness Clients. Of the roughly 28 percent that responded, slightly more than 94 percent are satisfied or very satisfied with the overall service of their Plan. In addition, nearly 96 percent of the respondents stated they were very likely or likely to continue to do business with TASC.
How do we achieve results like this? We already offer our Microbusiness Clients a very simple, streamlined service. All of these Clients receive generally the same service, and we deliver it very well. This consistent approach is exactly what this initiative is trying to achieve with our Group products. As we work to simplify our Group offerings, we strive to limit Plan designs and streamline services. The purpose: to help us perform better and deliver consistently better customer service.
In the world of software, a “happy path” is a path of execution on which everything travels as it should, a path on which nothing happens that’s not as expected, with the software swiftly and directly achieving the user’s goal. This path of ease is possible because travel on it has been appropriately controlled and simplified, with fewer on-ramps and off-ramps to interrupt flow.
Like the happy path, my cell phone works best when interruptions like static interference are kept to a minimum. And at TASC, we are working hard to reduce electronic traffic jams. We’re doing this by fostering an environment in which most Clients will choose a similar Plan design and/or service level, already the case with AgriPlan and BizPlan. TASC’s superhighway will be positioned to serve all of TASC’s customers at the highest level possible. We need only look to our Microbusiness services to see this goal already achieved.
TASC CEO Blog 